Cemented carbide hardmetals have been produced since 1910 and have gradually taken over from tool steels as the major material for high speed metal cutting and forming. One such forming operation is that of cold heading used in the production of nail and screw fasteners. This operation subjects a cemented carbide die to cyclic compressive and tensile stresses and may be considered as a fatigue process. Cold heading manufacturers have always been aware that some dies will produce millions of components and yet others will fail after a much smaller number and, in view of this, have reasoned that the surface finish of the die may be limiting factor in die life. This research has been carried out to investigate how the surface finish .affects die life and to find if there is any numerical correlation between surface finish and life. Commercially manufactured cemented carbides were subject to fatigue trials using standard miniature Wohler specimens. The grades of materials used were B, N and TT with a cobalt content of 6, 6 and 25% respectively. Grades N and TT were commercial grades with a grain size of 1.5-3μm, whereas B grade was an experimental grade with a grain size of 3.0-5.0μm. The fatigue tests were carried out on Wöhler rotating bending fatigue machines with stress levels on the specimens of between 700 and 1400 MNm². Initial testing was carried out with specimens in the as received ground condition. In order to demonstrate the effect of surface treatment on the fatigue performance of the test grades, the test specimens were subject to various mechanical and thermal treatments.

The magnetic properties, coercivity, Hc, and weight-specific magnetic saturation, CoM, are two important quality characteristics in cemented carbides and ceramic metals, cermets. These properties give information about grain size and binder phase content, and are influenced by the different stages in the sintering process. This master thesis aim to investigate how the magnetic properties in cemented carbides are influenced by the top temperature during sintering and how the sintering processes used for cermets can be optimized in order to gain better magnetic properties in the final products. During the first part of the project, the temperature range investigated was 1380°C–1520°C. The results indicate that Hc in cemented carbides has a strong temperature dependence, where increasing top temperature results in lower Hc. In order to have approval limits for the furnace control pieces that follow the process directives, the limits used today need to become narrower. Furthermore, the results show that CoM also has a temperature dependence, although not as strongly as Hc. During the second part of the project, already existing data of the magnetic properties in four different cermet grades were evaluated. The results indicate that the two sintering processes used in the DDK furnace are generating too high results in Hc and CoM. Optimization tests were conducted and changes implemented in order to gain better results, where the DJ1430 process now has an increased time during the solid state sintering and the DF1480 process now has an increased time during the liquid phase sintering.

Cemented carbides based on tungsten carbide and cobalt arecommonly produced by a powder metallurgy route including liquidphase sintering. The pressed compact densifies to almost halfits volume during sintering due to pore elimination. Thesintering behaviour changes with material composition, such ascarbide grain size, binder fraction, carbon content andaddition of cubic carbides. This thesis is devoted to the study of constitutivebehaviour, in particular densification, and the microstructuralevolution during cemented carbide sintering. Dimensionalchanges are monitored using dilatometry with and withoutapplied external load. The microstructural evolution isinvestigated with light optical microscopy and scanningelectron microscopy. Thermodynamic calculations are used asreference. Constitutive relations are derived for uniaxial viscosity,viscous equivalent of Poisson’s ratio and sintering stressbased on relative density and temperature. The relations areextended to a model describing sintering shrinkage withexplicit dependencies on carbide grain size and binder content.The model is divided in three stages of which two pertain tothe solid state and the third to liquid phase sintering. Solidstate shrinkage is suppressed in a material with coarsecarbides and in the stage of liquid phase sintering grain sizestrongly influences the uniaxial viscosity. The binder contentaffects primarily the later densification. The effects of carbon content and grain size distribution onshrinkage have been studied. High carbon content enhancesshrinkage rate, but the effect of grain size distribution israther small. The mean carbide grain size is insufficient todescribe densification for very broad distributions only. Shrinkage occurs through rearrangement andsolution-reprecipitation. Rearrangement is studied through theevolution of the pore size distribution and simulatedgenerically using a discrete element method. Keywords:Cemented carbides, Sintering, Constitutiverelations, Microstructure, Densification, Modelling

The aim of this thesis work was to design and evaluate a wear test method for cemented carbides inserts used in rotary drilling. An appropriate in-house wear test method would provide a better understanding of the wear mechanisms limiting tool life in real drilling. The test method should be easy to use and be able to distinguish between wear of insert materials with different microstructure and properties. The literature study showed few published articles about wear tests and mechanisms concerning rotary drill bit inserts. These methods included two standard wear tests; ASTM G65 and ASTM B611. Furthermore, a modified ASTM G65 test was found as well as an impact-abrasion test. In this work the modified ASTM G65 test, using a rock counter surface, was evaluated in order to understand if the method would mimic the wear of cemented carbides used in rotary drilling. The test method was further developed and showed high repeatability. Measured weight losses showed that the test could distinguish between two common rotary grade materials with a small difference in hardness but with different microstructures. The wear of the tested materials was analyzed with scanning electron microscopy and compared with rotary drill bit inserts collected from the field. The modified test method proved able to produce wear by mechanisms very similar to those found on field worn inserts. Identified wear mechanisms included cracking, fragmentation and spalling of WC grains as well as embedded fragments of WC grains on the surface. In addition, the binder phase was removed and adhered material from the counter surface was detected.

<p>Cemented carbides based on tungsten carbide and cobalt arecommonly produced by a powder metallurgy route including liquidphase sintering. The pressed compact densifies to almost halfits volume during sintering due to pore elimination. Thesintering behaviour changes with material composition, such ascarbide grain size, binder fraction, carbon content andaddition of cubic carbides.</p><p>This thesis is devoted to the study of constitutivebehaviour, in particular densification, and the microstructuralevolution during cemented carbide sintering. Dimensionalchanges are monitored using dilatometry with and withoutapplied external load. The microstructural evolution isinvestigated with light optical microscopy and scanningelectron microscopy. Thermodynamic calculations are used asreference.</p><p>Constitutive relations are derived for uniaxial viscosity,viscous equivalent of Poisson’s ratio and sintering stressbased on relative density and temperature. The relations areextended to a model describing sintering shrinkage withexplicit dependencies on carbide grain size and binder content.The model is divided in three stages of which two pertain tothe solid state and the third to liquid phase sintering. Solidstate shrinkage is suppressed in a material with coarsecarbides and in the stage of liquid phase sintering grain sizestrongly influences the uniaxial viscosity. The binder contentaffects primarily the later densification.</p><p>The effects of carbon content and grain size distribution onshrinkage have been studied. High carbon content enhancesshrinkage rate, but the effect of grain size distribution israther small. The mean carbide grain size is insufficient todescribe densification for very broad distributions only.</p><p>Shrinkage occurs through rearrangement andsolution-reprecipitation. Rearrangement is studied through theevolution of the pore size distribution and simulatedgenerically using a discrete element method.</p><p><b>Keywords:</b>Cemented carbides, Sintering, Constitutiverelations, Microstructure, Densification, Modelling</p>

The aim of the present work is to study the formation of the cubic carbide phase (gamma phase) free gradient zone and the gamma cone structure at the edges of gradient sintered cemented carbides. Four types of cemented carbides; WCTi(C,N)-Co, WC-Ti(C,N)-Ni, WC-Ti(C,N)-Fe, WC-(Ti,Ta,NB)(C,N)-Co were gradient sintered and the thicknesses of the gradients were measured. Formation of the gradients is simulated and the simulations results are compared with experimental data. For all of the one-dimensional simulations, the DICTRA [1] software is used. The two-dimensional simulations are carried out by using a new simulation tool which is called “YAPFI”. The YAPFI software is a tool for simulation of diffffusion in multiphase systems along one, two, or three spatial coordinates. Various numerical parameters have been studied by running less computationally demanding one-dimensional simulations. The optimized parameters are used to setup the two-dimensional simulations. Two different kinetic databases were used in the simulations. The effect of different so-called labyrinth factors were studied systematically. The simulation results are in close agreement with the experimental observations, although some anomalies are present in the results. Results of the two-dimensional simulations show the formation of the gamma cone at the edges of the insert.

The usage of cobalt (Co) as binder phase material in cemented carbides has been questioned becauseof the potential health hazards associated with cobalt particle inhalation. Cobalt is used because ofits excellent adhesive and wetting properties, combined with adequate mechanical properties. Thepurpose of this work is to investigate the mechanical properties of Fe-Ni bulk alloys and WC-Cocemented carbides using Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) methods com-bined with FEM data. The report investigates the mechanical properties of several bulk alloys inthe Fe-Ni system as a function of void size and fraction. FEM indentation and FEM fracture datais interpolated and used to model the hardnessHand fracture toughnessKIc. A precipitationhardening model based on the Ashby-Orowan’s equation is implemented to predict the e↵ect on theyield strength from precipitated particles. A model for solid solution hardening is also implemented.Existing models are used to simulate the properties of WC-Co cemented carbides together with thesolid solution hardening model. Results show that the simulated properties of the Fe-Ni bulk alloysare comparable to those of cobalt. However, the results could not be confirmed due to a lack ofexperimental data. The properties of WC-Co cemented carbides are in reasonable agreement withexisting experimental data, with an average deviation of the hardness by 11.5% and of the fracturetoughness by 24.8%. The conclusions are that experimental data for di↵erent Fe-Ni bulk alloys isneeded to verify the presented models and that it is possible to accurately model the properties ofcemented carbides. / Anv¨andandet av kobolt (Co) som bindefas-material i h°ardmetall har blivit ifr°agasatt som en f¨oljdav av de potentiella h¨alsoriskerna associerade med inhalering av koboltpartiklar. Kobolt anv¨ands p°agrund av dess utm¨arkta vidh¨aftande och v¨atande egenskaper, kombinerat med tillr¨ackliga mekaniskaegenskaper. Syftet med detta arbete ¨ar att unders¨oka de mekaniska egenskaperna hos Fe-Ni bulklegeringarochWC-Co h°ardmetall genom att anv¨anda Integrated Computational Materials Engineering(ICME) metoder kombinerat med FEM-data. Rapporten unders¨oker de mekaniska egenskapernahos flera bulklegeringar i Fe-Ni systemet. FEM-indentering och FEM-fraktur data interpoleras ochanv¨ands f¨or att modellera h°ardheten H och brottsegheten KIc. En modell f¨or utskiljningsh¨ardningbaserad p°a Ashby-Orowans ekvation implementeras f¨or att f¨oruts¨aga e↵ekten p°a brottgr¨ansen av utskiljdapartiklar. ¨Aven en modell f¨or l¨osningsh¨ardning implementeras. Existerande modeller anv¨andsf¨or att simulera egenskaperna hos WC-Co h°ardmetall tillsammans med modellen f¨or l¨osningsh¨ardning.Resultaten visar att de simulerade egenskaperna hos Fe-Ni bulklegeringar ¨ar j¨amf¨orbara medde f¨or kobolt. Dock kan de inte bekr¨aftas p°a grund av avsaknad av experimentell data. Egenskapernahos WC-Co h°ardmetall st¨ammer rimligt ¨overens med existerande experimentell data, meden genomsnittlig avvikelse av h°ardheten med 11.5% och av brottsegheten med 24.8%. Slutsatserna¨ar att det beh¨ovs experimentell data f¨or Fe-Ni bulklegeringar f¨or att kunna verifiera modellernasnoggrannhet och att det ¨ar m¨ojligt att f¨oruts¨aga egenskaperna hos h°ardmetall.

In this thesis, drill bit buttons with cobalt, nickel and iron binders in different compositions have been tested against granite and sandstone and the wear and friction have been measured. Furthermore, the wear and degradation of the buttons have been categorized. Buttons with cobalt binder were tested against granite and sandstone and buttons with alternative binders (Ni, Fe, Co) were tested against granite. Cobalt buttons were used as a reference and the wear and friction of the alternative binders was compared to the reference. The amount of worn rock was also measured. Furthermore, post treated drill bit buttons with a composition of Fe-Ni-Co were compared to buttons with the same composition that had not been post treated The results show that buttons with an alternative composition of Fe-Co-Ni and Fe- Ni wears less than the cobalt reference. The post treatment process does not decrease the wear of the drill bit but lowers the deviation from the mean wear. The amount of worn rock does not differ between the samples except for between the post treated and not post treated buttons with a composition of Fe-Ni-Co. The post treated buttons produces more rock debris than the not post treated. No apparent difference could be seen on the surface of the tested buttons after the test. However, composition specific cracks could be found underneath the surface of the samples. EDS-analysis showed signals of oxygen inside of all of the investigated cracks. For some compositions at depths of 20 micrometers. The curves of friction shows similar appearance but the values of the coefficient of friction differs. No apparent correlation was found between the wear and friction of the samples. Furthermore, no apparent correlation was found between the hardness and the wear of the buttons.

This thesis deals with coated cemented carbides, which are used for the manufacture of cutting tools. The introductory section provides an overview of the most common tool materials. The main part focuses on the production of coated SK, coating methods, types and properties of coatings. The final section deals with coated cemented carbide product range in the world's leading producer of tools and tool materials, tools and recommended working conditions for their effective use.

WC cemented carbides are composites consisting of WC and a binder phase. WC/Co is widely used as cutting tools due to its excellent combination of hardness and toughness. This thesis work was performed at the R&amp;D department of Sandvik Coromant and aimed to find the alternative binder phase to substitute cobalt. Several compositions of Fe-Ni and Fe-Ni-Co binder have been investigated in this study. The WC/Co reference samples were also prepared. The initial compositions were decided by the CALPHAD method. The samples were then produced by the means of powder metallurgy. The producing conditions, especially the sintering conditions, were manipulated to achieve full dense and uniform samples. The samples were analyzed by XRD, LOM, SEM, and EDS. Mechanical properties test has also been performed.The results showed that adjustment on carbon content is necessary to attain desirable structure. Increasing Fe content in the binder tends to make the materials harder. For Fe-Ni and Fe-Ni-Co, the martensitic transformation is essential to the mechanical performance. The induced “transformation toughening” in 72Fe28Ni and 82Fe18Ni binders significantly promoted the toughness. Furthermore, the grain growth inhibition by Fe was confirmed. The relations between sintering temperature, grain size and mechanical properties have been discussed. Compared with the WC/Co references, several compositions showed close and even superior mechanical performance which might provide solutions for the future alternative binder phase.